Each week, FP Weekly members receive a practical and cutting-edge checklist of issues to consider, action steps to take, and goals to accomplish to ensure you remain on the top of your game when it comes to workplace relations and employment law compliance. This week we provide you a checklist of steps to consider if you want to roll out a company-wide vacation policy – one where all your employees take the same paid week off at the same time in addition to their usual paid time off.
What is a Company-Wide Vacation?
In order to combat fatigue and burnout and to provide employees with a true break from work for a full week, some organizations are turning to company-wide vacations. The premise is simple. All employees are given the same week off at the same time besides absolutely essential personnel that are needed to ensure your company stays afloat. This time off is beyond the employees’ typical vacation time that they can schedule on their own.
This means that your employees will not be contacted by other workers with “quick” questions or Zoom meeting requests, will not be tempted to check email or message systems, and will truly feel like they have the freedom to unplug. Consider it like a mini-summer vacation as if you were back in grammar school, with everyone enjoying time off at the same time and a true sense of liberation that they have no responsibilities for a brief (but glorious) period of time.
While this model may not work for every company or role, the benefits are obvious for those that can swing it: increased morale, higher retention rates, a great selling point for applicants, fewer incidents of employee burn-out, and happier and more productive employees upon their return (who won’t be dealing with the standard barrage of emails to plow through on that first Monday morning).
Weekly Checklist: Implementing a Company-Wide Vacation Policy